BA295:
London LHR -
Chicago ORD
4th March 2011
World Traveller
Boeing 747-400
When I used to live up at the other end of the Piccadilly Line, I'd occasionally worry about falling asleep on my way home from a night shift and waking up in Cockfosters. This time round, I had to be careful about dozing off, going round the Heathrow loop and still ending up at Cockfosters. Thankfully, the journey was mostly above ground, so the daylight kept me awake, and I made it from the office to the check-in area in an hour flat. (Tube trivia: my journey took me from London Underground's newest station to its second newest).
BA's seating policy offers free choice to status passengers from the time of booking, but lowly Blues have the choice of paying for it, or waiting until online check-in opens. I'd had my eye on one of the window/aisle pairs towards the back of the 747 (the layout is otherwise 3-4-3, until the fuselage starts to narrow), and it was thankfully still available at T-24. There was the small hitch that I was fast asleep when check-in opened, but I set the alarm clock and used the BA Android app to successfully select seats, and download a mobile boarding pass.
Looking down at the arrivals level from Departures
A cup of tea later, and my girlfriend arrived, somewhat chuffed that she'd managed to get her boarding pass on her phone too. We were through South security in no time at all, and I'd been hoping to sign us up for the UK Border Agency's
IRIS fast-track immigration scheme, but the registration room was closed. The departures board was showing a B-gate departure, so despite the temptation of trying Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food, we thought we'd head over on the transit before getting some breakfast. Turns out this was a bit of a schoolboy error: for those of us who aren't lounge-lubbers, T5B can only offer a tiny Wetherspoons (with some sad-looking pastries), and a branch of coffee shop chain Apostrophe. They did have bacon sarnies on the menu, but none left, so we settled for their overpriced Danishes instead.
G-BNLP at T5B. Ready to Fly, as BA like to say.
Checking the seat map overnight, I'd noticed it was still looking fairly open, and I'd been hoping to ask nicely on board if I could nab an empty middle four for myself to get a bit of a nap. Annoyingly, someone in the row in front caught the attention of an attendant first, and within a few seconds of his reply ("I think the doors are closed - feel free to spread out a bit"), all the empty blocks were taken. You snooze you loose. At least I could sleep undisturbed in my window seat, and my girlfriend could get up for a wander without bothering anyone.
During the drinks run, I asked if I could have an eye mask - they're no longer supplied as standard - but it took its time to arrive. As it hadn't by the time the lunch service came around, I thought I might as well have something to eat. I chose what was announced as a new option, pasta with cajun chicken, which was reasonably tasty. My girlfriend had ordered the VLML, which arrived first, but I'm afraid I can't quite remember what it was, or what the other standard option was.
BA WT meal. S'alright.
I dropped off soon after, and was woken up a short time later by an FA handing me an eye mask. Thanks.
After a few hours' sleep, I woke up to find the cabin in darkness - apparently the crew dimmed the lights and closed the windowshades, and quite a few people were asleep, despite it being daytime in both London and Chicago. My girlfriend likened it to people going into hospital and changing into their pyjamas and getting into bed even when there's not a lot wrong with them.
WT cabin, late on in the flight.
I'd already seen most of the new films I might have wanted to see on the AVOD system, so sat back to watch The Big Lebowski, and discovered that my screen was on the blink. I wandered down to the galley to ask them if they could reset it (even though it looked an awful lot like a loose cable somewhere), and also if it would be possible to have a snack of some sort. I was expecting some of the birdseed they hand out on shorthaul flights, but was told that they only stock snacks on longer flights, so I left empty-handed. The reset didn't do the trick, so since the girlfriend was ensconced in a book, I swapped seats with her and continued to watch The Dude.
The afternoon snack service appeared pretty late in the flight, only about 45 minutes before landing. It felt pretty rushed, and I'd barely gulped down my cup of tea before the final call for the loos. Perhaps they leave it so late because of ORD's reputation for air traffic control delays - and we had none on our flight and landed more or less to time.
Multipurpose special meal for my girlfriend, which was dropped into my lap, since I was in its intended seat.
I can't remember what, if anything, wasn't vegetarian about this.
Overall, I'd probably rate the service as a bit perfunctory. Granted, I slept through a lot of it, but from what I saw it wasn't bad, nor was it outstanding. We had a warm welcome when boarding and in all the announcements, but I would have expected a little more from BA on the in-cabin service.